A Democracy Fallen Read online

  A Democracy Fallen

  (The Second American Civil War Series)

  Book 1

  By Matthew Savage

  Copyright © 2018

  All rights reserved. In accordance with U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Thank you to Kyle Delso for helping with the design of the cover. Thank you Kyle Delso, Brandon Grode and Travis Hughes for helping me whenever I was stuck and needed someone to bounce ideas off of. I want to thank everyone who kindly listened as I talked, excitedly, about writing this book. A special thank you my dog, Sirius who was on my lap for most of the writing of this book; he can’t read this book because… he is a dog.

  Chapters

  Chapter One

  A Special Guest

  Chapter Two

  Another Day

  Chapter Three

  The Speech

  Chapter Four

  The Captain and His Wife

  Chapter Five

  First Flight

  Chapter Six

  The Senator from Oregon

  Chapter Seven

  The Democratic Insurgence

  Chapter Eight

  Mission Gone Wrong

  Chapter Nine

  The Training

  Chapter Ten

  New Assignments

  Chapter Eleven

  Cadets to Privates

  Chapter Twelve

  Eagle Watching

  Chapter Thirteen

  New Targets

  Chapter Fourteen

  Extra Passengers

  Chapter Fifteen

  Complicated Choices

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Senator’s Surprise

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Battle for The Fortress

  Chapter Eighteen

  Face to Face

  Chapter Nineteen

  Reunited

  Chapter Twenty

  The War Begins

  Chapter One

  A Special Guest

  Office of the United States Security Bureau: Washington D.C

  A young man in a small sedan drove towards a large, black granite building. He was sweating profusely in his black military uniform with lieutenant insignia on his collar. He wiped his face with a handkerchief doing his best to control his breathing. As he approached the gates of the building he wiped his face one last time. He rolled down his window and came to a stop in front of the guard station at the entrance to the parking lot.

  “Identification Lieutenant?” the guard said with a semi-serious voice. As if this process is something he does not like doing. The Lieutenant handed over his ID badge. The guard looked it over “Cutting it kind of close today?” The guard asked.

  “Traffic was awful even for a Monday. If only President Marshal could regulate that. Maybe then I could get here early for once.” The Lieutenant said.

  This earned a little chuckle from the guard. “That would be nice. He probably will at the rate he is going.”

  Those comments made the Lieutenant’s stomach do a somersault. Over the last twenty years, things had become more controlled. President Marshal had growing power in the government. He started as Vice President to George Bush during his second term. In that time President George Bush was assassinated. The circumstances surrounding that incident were confused and very little information was given out the public. When President Marshal took over things drastically changed. He signed an Executive Order stating that a President can stay in for one than one term, if in a crisis. After some changes in government, he made it so that Congress elects the President. His first election by Congress was met with backlash. Several strange things happening to members of Congress after that. Since that first election, the vote for him had been unanimous. Since that first election, he had managed to stay in office for five terms. This wasn’t the first part of the Constitution that he changed and it wasn’t going to be the last.

  “You had better, head in before this guest gets here. The whole building has been talking about the appointment of the Major and I guess he is a real strict fella,” the guard said as he waved the Lieutenant past the gate.

  The Lieutenant entered the parking lot and headed towards his designated parking spot. As he did he placed an earpiece into his ear. “I just entered the parking lot. Can you hear me?”

  A female voice spoke into his ear. “We hear you loud and clear.”

  “We are sure they won’t know I have this in my ear?”

  “Unless someone hears you talking to yourself, no one should suspect a thing.”

  The Lieutenant took a deep breath as he parked his car. He sat for a moment before finally leaving. He walked toward the entrance of the building. The door opened and he passed a small security table. There he would put his bag in an x-ray machine and walk through a metal detector. His heart stopped for a moment as he passed through. The Lieutenant hoped that it wouldn’t go off with his earpiece in. When it didn’t he felt as though a large weight had been lifted off him. He retrieved his bag and made his way towards the elevator. Several people lower in rank saluted him as he passed. He waited for an elevator when another officer came up next to him.

  “I don’t know about you,” he started saying “but I am excited about this Major, I heard the President himself brought him on.”

  “I heard that too.” the Lieutenant said, trying to sound casual.

  “I think I heard someone say that he fought in the last war. I can’t remember if that was true or not, but I know for sure he is tough." The officer paused and checked his watch. "I hear we are going to be given more power soon. About time right?”

  “Yeah, about time,” The Lieutenant said as they stepped into the elevator. He pushed the thirty-sixth floor as the other officer pressed the tenth.

  “The Bureau is protecting this country. The President is not going to stand and let those Insurgents harass the people. It is about time that we actually have someone willing to go out and get these people. Give them the justice they deserve. That’s what I say! They are a bunch of terrorists who don’t understand how great this country is now, and they want to try and hurt it.”

  The elevator reached for the tenth floor. The other officer saluted the Lieutenant and left the elevator. With him gone the Lieutenant was free to take his deep breaths and continue to try and control the sweat pouring down his face.

  “Excited guy wasn’t he? He must be new.” The voice in his ear said.

  “I think he was.”

  The elevator door opened on the thirty-sixth floor. He walked towards a set of double doors as he opened them his secretary looked up at him and stood.

  “Good morning sir.” The familiar voice said louder because he was hearing it through his earpiece too.

  “Good morning, anything new happen?”

  “Nothing yet but the Major is set to arrive around eleven o’clock.”

  “Excellent, we should have plenty of time.”

  He walked past her through another door. His desk was very plain. He sat down and logged onto his computer. He typed D, I, 2009, hit enter, and the computer opened. His job with the USSB was deployment. Which meant making sure that their people were in areas that they needed to be in. If they had riots in Detroit, then the USSB would deploy troops to put down the riots and seize the people responsible. This wasn’t the only thing the USSB did. They also did intelligence, investigation, counter-terrorism along with other things that he wasn’t author
ized to know about. Working for the USSB made a person wonder if there were other departments of the government. It seemed like the USSB was doing everything. This was a military department though it didn’t fall under any particular branch. A person did not have to be in any specific branch to join. This was the only department that reported directly to the president. He had complete control and below him was Director Ravana who ran the day to day activity at the USSB.

  Today he had several alerts on his agenda. One of which was a report of high potential for attacks in rural Indiana somewhere. Another was a small group of protestors outside of the Governor of the Southwest’s complex, several cybercrimes in areas of Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, and a suspected spy or something of that nature in Chicago. It seemed, to the Lieutenant, it was a slow weekend. He decided he would send troops to help break up the protestors by the Governor's complex. That Governor was a hot-tempered person and this would only lead to even more problems out there. He would make note of the potential for attacks out in Indiana, there wasn’t much information to go on so investigations would have to do more. Which meant the same for the person in Chicago. He could dispatch teams to get the cyber hackers.

  “I am going to email you the areas we are looking into today,” He said out loud knowing the voice could hear him. “Be sure to let the right people know.”

  “I will, of course.” The voice replied promptly.

  “Is our friend in investigations gone yet?”

  “His appointment isn’t for another fifteen minutes.”

  This didn’t exactly make him feel better. He knew that once they got started there was no going back. He had done his research and he felt sure that by the time he was done they would only just find out what had happened. By that time he and his partner would be long gone.

  After several minutes of sending out orders and taking a few phone calls. He got a message in his ear “He has left his office. We must be fast because this new Major is on his way. It’s looking like we are going to cut it kind of close.”

  “I understand,” the Lieutenant sat for a moment and took a deep breath. “You know what to do. Make the move.”

  He stood up and gathered the few things he had in his office and put them in his bag. He walked out of his office and his secretary was gone this didn’t bother him, he walked past the empty desk and into the hallway. He looked around making sure the coast was clear and walked to the end of the hallway towards the stairwell. The Investigation Department was two flights down and he moved fast keeping an eye on the time. When he exited the stairwell he took extra care in moving calmly towards the proper room and reached a locked door. He searched his bag looking for a keycard; scanned the hall to make sure it was empty, found the one he was looking for, and inserted it into the doors key lock. The door clicked opened and the Lieutenant entered. The room was filled with computers. He walked counting the rows when he reached the right one he walked several computers over. The Lieutenant arrived at the one he was looking for. He took a seat and entered the key card he used to get into the room. The computer came to life as the USSB logo appeared on the screen almost as if it was watching him. He was required to enter a password. He fumbled in his pocket for something. He finally found what he was searching for, the piece of paper with the password on it. In very neat handwriting were the numbers 0-3-2-5-2-8-2-3. He put them into the computer and it logged him on.

  “I am in!” He yelled a bit louder than he was anticipating.

  The voice in his ear spoke very quickly, “Hurry we don’t have much time.”

  He searched for the file named D.I Contacts, located it then clicked it. The names of many people started appearing. The Lieutenant pulled out a USB and copied the file to it. He exited the computer and took the key card and the computer shut off. He was making his way towards the door when it opened. In walked a thin, young man in a black uniform and he was very confused.

  “How did you get in here? You don’t have access to this area.”

  Thinking quickly, the Lieutenant hit the other soldier over the head with his bag. This knocked him down for a moment. The man was not expecting to be attacked. The Lieutenant gained the opportunity he was looking for. He pulled a small knife from his pocket and forcefully inserted it behind the soldier’s ear. He screamed for a moment but the Lieutenant cupped his mouth. Blood gushed from the man’s wound as he struggled on the ground. He stood over the fallen soldier. The Lieutenant inspected his uniform making sure there were no visible blood stains on him.

  “I ran into company, and I had to take someone out.” He had a nervous tone in his voice.

  “Calm down and get moving, if you got the information we need, get out! When he is found this place will lock down and we can’t be here when it does.”

  The Lieutenant left the room and headed for the stairwell. He was down three flights when an alarm went off. He began running faster down the stairs skipping steps.

  “That must be us!” The panicked voice in his ear yelled and the Lieutenant can tell she was distressed.

  “Are you almost out?”

  “Almost! Oh no - Find a way to get the information out!” The earpiece cut off, which was when he took it out of his ear and smashed it.

  The Lieutenant ran back up the stairs and left the stairwell and headed as fast as he could towards his office. He entered the first room and locked the door behind him then went through the next set of doors and locked those. He turned on his computer and plugged in the USB drive. He drafted an email and uploaded the file. He could hear people break down the first set of doors. His heart raced as he finished and quickly sent the email. From a drawer in his desk, he grabbed a pistol, pointed it at the computer and shot it several times. The doors burst open and he raised his pistol towards it when a shot was fired. Searing pain ripped through his shoulder. He fell to the ground and several soldiers’ landed on him and they took away his gun. One hit him in the face with the butt of a rifle. He could feel his nose crack and could taste blood going into his mouth. Several soldiers picked him up and dragged him down the hall. The hit from the rifle blurred his vision and for a moment he blacked out. He awoke outside as someone hit him very hard in the face, he could feel his face swelling from several hits he had taken. They brought him to his knees. He looked around as best he could through his ever-swelling eye and realized that he was in the courtyard of the USSB building. He was surrounded by armed guards. Suddenly, they all stood at attention as a man came strolling into the courtyard. He wore the black uniform of the USSB with a major’s insignia on his collar. The Major had a cape draped over one side of his body which made him look like royalty.

  “Lieutenant Simons, I am surprised it is you we have out here today. I would have thought that someone of your background would not get themselves in this much trouble.”

  The Lieutenant spat blood at the Major’s feet. Major Fulton didn’t seem to be bothered by this. He walked around the Lieutenant until he was in front of him once again. “We have the girl I assume,” Major Fulton said looking around as if she was in the crowd of guards.

  The doors which he came through reopened. Several soldiers dragged a severely beaten woman. Lieutenant Simons recognized her as his secretary at once. He struggled to try and get to her but the soldiers on his sides held him on his knees, and one kicked him in his ribs.

  “Put her on her knees,”

  The guards did as Major Fulton commanded. He approached her and knelt in front of the beaten secretary.

  “It seems you tried to put up a fight.” He licked his lips before speaking again. “Feisty woman you have here Lieutenant I can see why you recruited her.” He moved some of her hair from her face to get a better look at her.

  “Don’t touch me.” She said, barely managing to form the words.

  “I am sorry but I wanted to see that face. In fact, I wanted to make sure Simons here sees that face.” He stood up and moved behind her resting his hands on her shoulders. She struggled to get away from him but as sh
e did he held her tighter, like a snake holding its prey that was trying to escape. “Now I must say, Lieutenant Simons, that was very good work destroying the computer. I have people working to try and hack our systems. I am sure you know, it is rather difficult. I am sorry-” He stumbles over those last words “It is near impossible, actually. Clever, clever, that is good thinking on your part. We have ways of reading emails and such so I am sure we will find who you sent it too. Though you did forget one thing, you didn’t destroy the USB. I understand we were breaking down doors to get to you. The stress was high, emotions taking over. I get it,” He did a massaging motion on the secretary's back. “I know what you took. You wanted to know who we know are Democratic Insurgent supporters. I am sure you have more, that we are yet unaware of. You and your beautiful friend here, being perfect examples of that. It is a shame that you choose to be on the Democratic Insurgency’s side rather than that of your own country.” He was holding her shoulders tight now and the Lieutenant could see the strain of pain on her face.

  “Let her go.” He yelled, begging to make the Major stop hurting her.

  “Now that is a silly thing to say, Simons, guards make sure he does not speak again.” With these words, one guard kicked his mouth breaking the Lieutenant’s jaw. He moaned in pain and fell limp but the guards on his side held him up on his knees.

  “Now you stole government information and gave it to terrorist. This will not stand. Treason, will not stand.”

  He took his hands off of the secretary’s neck and lightly stroked her face. He then flicked the cape off his side revealing a chrome pistol in a holster. In one motion he took it out and pointed at the back of her head.

  BANG!

  One shot went off and the secretary fell to the ground. Blood from the shot sprayed on the Lieutenant’s face. It was hard to tell given the amount of blood already there from his injuries. The Lieutenant was crying now and tears, blood, and snot were running down his face.